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100 Years of Teacher Education at Centre
by Bradley Nystrom, Professor Emeritus of Education
Hiring George Ramsey as professor of education and starting an education program 100 years ago can be viewed as part of a strategy employed by President Frederick Hinitt to strengthen Centre by strengthening Kentucky’s high schools. When he came to Kentucky in 1905, Hinitt found only 85 four-year high schools and a mere eight graduating students able to meet college entrance requirements, with only 25 more who came close.
For both altruistic and self-serving motives, Centre, which had only about 150 students, decided to actively support, enlarge, and improve public education, especially high schools. Better public schools would benefit Kentucky and its citizens—as well as produce more college-ready students. Centre, too, would benefit from a broader pool of applicants and also would be able to raise the quality of the College’s work.
Having realized the need to strengthen high schools, Hinitt involved Centre in several ways:
1. He raised the College’s admission standards. Rather than wait for the public schools to mature and improve themselves, a top-down approach was adopted. Colleges would raise their standards, forcing high schools to raise the quality of their work. In 1907 the number of credits required for Centre admission was raised from 12 or fewer to 14.
2. Along with other Kentucky colleges, Centre began accrediting high schools.
3. Political involvement by Centre’s faculty and alumni, including John Acheson, Class of 1898 and president of Caldwell College, helped pass the 1908 Sullivan Law requiring each county to establish a high school. (Caldwall College was the forerunner of Kentucky College for Women, which in 1926 became the Woman’s Department of Centre College.) A Kentucky Educational Commission was established also, with Hinitt a member and Ramsey elected secretary. Additionally Centre was influential in whirlwind campaigns of 1908 and 1909 to build support for public schools.
4. Starting an education program made Centre a player in public education. It provided jobs for graduates, and in turn those able teachers would improve the quality of the schools.
Though teacher education was a means in Hinitt’s strategy, it was an end also. Teaching and administrative positions in public and private secondary schools had long attracted Centre graduates. This was a time when there was little explicit preparation for teachers and no system of certification. As early as 1881 there were calls for education courses at Centre, so with Ramsey on the faculty, teaching and pedagogy now could be studied directly.
While there have been many changes in teacher education at Centre over the last century, some themes can be identified. Education offerings were affected both by internal and external factors. From two courses in 1907, there was a curricular expansion in 1920 to 14 courses; however, from 1930 to 1967 education was paired with psychology. With limited faculty, expanding psychology’s offerings usually decreased those in education. In 1931, when education was abolished as a major at the request of Thomas Cochran, professor of psychology and education, only four education courses were offered, the number required to teach in Kentucky. Psychology became first a minor, and then in 1944 a major. However, increasingly education curricula were being influenced and determined by the state. As early as 1928, faculty minutes contain references to state certification requirements. State teams visited Centre, and self-study reports were required at frequent intervals. Certification became more formalized and more stringent, often calling for additional courses.
Elementary education was always being studied at Centre, either to be re-established or abolished, and one reason for this was that far more courses were required for elementary than secondary education. Since the vast majority of elementary teachers were women, elementary education appeared at Centre after the woman’s department was established in 1926. Centre’s elementary program was abolished about 1934, revived for a few years in the early 1940s, and finally authorized again as a major in 1953, with Emily Reeves hired in 1955 to oversee it. The most recent re-examination occurred in 1986 when a committee studied elementary education and determined that it should continue.
Teacher education at Centre has been grounded in the liberal arts and has stressed quality. Even in 1907 it was clear that education courses were meant to be more than mere vocational courses: “These courses have been especially arranged for students who expect to make teaching a profession, but from a sociological viewpoint are interesting and valuable to the general student,” said the 1907-08 catalogue. Despite relatively small numbers, over the last century the impact of well-rounded teachers from Centre has been considerable.
Bradley Nystrom taught education at Centre from 1973 until his retirement in 2006. He has particular expertise in secondary education and comparative education, especially with schools in Tanzania, East Africa, where he has taught, and also schools in India, Egypt, and Russia.
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